” Finding ways to keep yourself and your team motivated will be your challenge.”  Jon Gonzales

During the Holiday Season, most salons will be busy,especially if they are well managed. Unfortunately, after the holidays, many salons will experience a slow down period after the holidays. Overcoming the potential slow months of January, February, March and April; this can be a challenging period, especially to our younger workers trying to build a clientele. A tough and competitive economy doesn’t help matters. For this reason I urge salon owners to plan ahead and turn your slow season into busy months.

Despite these challenges you can turn adversity into wonderful opportunities to grow your business and clientele.

If your one of the top well managed salons that are able to stay busy throughout the year, you’re to be congratulated. If your business is not as busy as you would like to be, please follow these tips’

Now is the time to start planning your marketing strategy to survive and prosper during this potential slow down period.

Planning –— develop your marketing and advertising campaign using social media ,flyers ,post cards, newsletters etc. Now is the time to start planning for the 2019 season, develop a marketing calendar for for the whole year.

Old Clients — send a simple letter or card and simply say we miss you.  Make sure you also include an offer as a reward. It has been proven that lost customers are the easiest to get back.Make them an offer they can,t refuse.

Education — seek out education, my business seminar for salon owners and personal growth success seminar for hairdressers will be a great start. I will be releasing my 2019 seminar schedule very soon. This is the time where you need to keep yourself and your team motivated and excited about the New Year. If you’re a salon owner, take the time to develop your business management skills, I urge you to make plans for my upcoming business management seminar in Las Vegas,Nevada on Monday and Tuesday  July 21-22. Click here for more information.

Early Bird specials — This is a great time to offer incentives and customer loyalty rewards to your loyal customers, especially during the early part of the week. Take advantage of the many cost effective resources of social media.

Group On — although I am not a fan of group on, especially if you want to attract an upscale clientele, but this would be a great time to develop your junior stylist program at reduced rates for your young staff members.

Sell More Services — educate your staff on how to sell more services.  Example, your client is scheduled for a haircut, but you could use this extra time to bond with your customer and sell more services ,by asking for referrals, always explaining the benefits of a new color,regular haircut, or other services. I will be presenting an all day seminar on personal grow development.  A great way to help them regain their passion for self improvement.

Avoid Complacency — the greatest thief to success. This slow period will allow you time to regain your passion to succeed by ongoing education education ,especially in developing your business skills.. the more you learn, the more you earn.

Review your Profit and Loss Statement — Numbers don,t  lie; did you really make a profit? If not, get help. Do you have a plan or strategy for the New Year? Are you prepared with your tax responsibility? Are your records all organized? Have you evaluated your staff and their referral rate and performance?

Monitor your Staff Performance and Productivity — monitor their referrals and customer return results

Educate Your Staff –— a great time to find use your down time for self improvement on a one and one review.

Although we all want our salons to stay busy throughout the year, but  a  slow period of growth can present you with fantastic opportunities to plan and grow your business even during the slow season. For ongoing information,daily business and success tips and future announcements, join my face book business fan page by clicking here and hit the “like” button.